Issue 576

Biffy Clyro

It seemed like a good idea at the time. The Golden Tower is a tall structure not unlike a stunted Big Ben with a row of seats strung around it. It looks like a lot less of a drop than you think even when you’re stranded several hundred feet up, legs…

Day Jobs

Look closely at your electrician. Can you imagine him as a rock singer? What about your cleaning lady - does she exhibit in the Saatchi Gallery? And have you heard the one about the aerobics teacher with a book deal? For a variety of (mostly financial…

Life & Style - Travel

The car rental clerk has me sussed. ‘Of course, for only an extra US$100 you can have this.’ Turning the page of his display book, he taps invitingly on the upper corner of a photograph. There, glistening in the Californian sunlight, is a Chrysler…

Life & Style - Eat & Drink

The Meal When both YoSushi! and the original OKO shut their doors a few years back, some predicted the death knell for sushi in Scotland. The pair were sprawling joints and probably evidence that the local market for cold cooked rice, seaweed and…

The Graffiti Project

If you stand on the 45th floor of the tallest building in downtown Sao Paulo, the chaotic concrete jungle stretches in all directions as far as the eye can see. The energy and traffic fumes produced by this Brazilian city’s 18m inhabitants create a haze…

Life & Style - Shop

That tired old maxim that nobody queues like the British has had a new lease of life this month, with a nasty rash of ‘event shopping’ getting consumers and commentators itchy. They included the launch of Kate Moss’s collection for Topshop and Anya…

Aereogramme call it a day

Scottish four-piece Aereogramme have announced that they are to split up. The band, credited with crafting intelligent, innovative alternative/progressive rock for the past nine years, across four albums, are currently in the midst of a UK and European…

Burns an’ a’ That festival line-up unveiled

Words: Allan Radcliffe (Picture: Deacon Blue (left) and the MacDonald Brothers (right)) The sixth Burns an’ a’ That festival, which takes place from Wednesday 23-Monday 28 May, features an enticing programme of entertainment, music, dance…

Remote Control

They don’t make ‘em like they used to back in the good old days, do they? The nostalgia industry is showing no sign of abating and, frankly, why should it when it consistently throws up some fascinating television. The clutch of shows about the past…

Alison Peebles

Here’s something you may not know: Samuel Beckett is the only Nobel Prize winner to play first class cricket. This might only be of significance to a quiz master, but for the following story, possibly apocryphal, yet terribly plausible, that’s…

Aernout Mik

(Picture: Scapegoat) At first, it might seem surprising that Dutch artist Aernout Mik claims to care little about art. He argues that you might as well get rid of the words ‘experiencing art’. Yet, in going against his orders and experiencing the…

Sara Barker

SCULPTURE (Picture: Falling Abbey) Conceptual and perceptual reality fit like a Möbius strip, chasing and paralleling each other in the work of Glasgow-based sculptor Sara Barker. Her new installed sculptural works kick the over-stuffed…

Too Close to The Sun

MUSICAL THEATRE ‘When I was very young, just a nipper, after my first album, I was living with a pal, Steve Morris, who lived in some style in Beverley Hills and I was invited to go to St Louis and write a musical with some real theatre people,…

Introdans Ensemble for youth and NDT2

MODERN DANCE Double Dutch usually implies confusion and misunderstanding. But in Edinburgh this month, it means two tasty helpings of dance from the Netherlands. Hot on each other’s heels, Introdans Ensemble for Youth and Nederlands Dans Theater 2…

Mahabharata

CLASSIC East meets West is often a tricky encounter. Can either of us truly reproduce the culture and sensibilities of the other? Director Stuart Wood’s version of the ancient epic Indian poem, Mahabharata, chooses to combine the two. ‘We use Western…

Cyprus

Political thriller When Cyprus writer Peter Arnott’s taut, politically charged three-hander debuted at Mull Theatre in 2005, it was set on the day of the London bombings. ‘At the time, the bombings were the newest instalment of this continuing, sad…

Brits Get Rich in China

BUSINESS DOCUMENTARY Paul Merton recently recalled with some anxiety how he forced down a portion of cooked donkey penis in the name of travel shows. And in this documentary, a marginally traumatised businessman dines briefly on the same delicacy.

Peacock Among the Ruins

INTERIOR DESIGN DCA hosts Peacocks Among the Ruins, co-curated by Glasgow-based designers Timorous Beasties as part of the Six Cities design festival. The exhibition brings together a rich selection of contemporary design with antiquated textile…

Hanneline Visnes

PAINTING (Picture: Possessions) Belgian-born, Glasgow-based artist Hanneline Visnes’ paintings record the tension between abstraction and representation, pattern and spontaneity - a play of opposites that has come to characterise a slightly…

‘E Polish Quine

NEW WORK Henry Adam’s capacity to emotionally move an audience has remained unchallenged in Scotland over recent years. This writer’s work, for all the wildly funny farce of such pieces as The People Next Door, and unflinching political commentary of…

Hitlist - The best theatre & dance

Mahabharata Epic narrative, vivid colour, dancing and puppetry are promised in this new production of the sprawling Indian tale, first brought to Western audiences by Peter Brook. Written by Stephen Clark and with music by Nitin Sawhney, this looks like…

Hitlist - The best exhibitions

Sara Barker An exhibition of sculptures by the Glasgow-based artist made out of flimsy, throwaway materials. Barker arranges her anti-sculptures in intentionally unimpressive geometric arrangements, forcing the viewer to stand directly in front of her…

Yippeee!!!

CONTEMPORARY DANCE With his love of geometric patterns and big budget dance routines, Busby Berkeley knew how to entertain an audience. And trying to emulate such a master, in these days of funding cuts and small venues, is no mean feat. But as she’s…

Shhh

Ladies and gentlefolk, there are mysterious musical goings on afoot. In a place known only as Marvello HQ, Sonny Marvello and his band are creating an outlet for Glasgow talent at a semi-secret clubnight called Shhh. We say semi-secret as we now know it…